Two days ago, the first round of the white stork census in Serbia began and will last until May 31, and the second round will be organized from June 17 to July 15, announced Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia.
The coordinator of this year's International Stork Census is Kristina Milošević from the Society for Protection and Study ptica Serbia tells "Vreme" that through monitoring they can monitor the number of birds, and that this is especially important for protected and endangered species, and white storks are a protected species.
He explains that in this way they can also determine protection measures that will increase their number, and if there has been an overpopulation, they can reduce the number of these birds.
"White storks are particularly good for agriculture because they feed on rodents, thus reducing their number." On the other hand, they also feed on fish, amphibians, and reptiles, so they are very good indicators of good habitat quality - because where there are storks, that means there is plenty of food and that the conditions for their nesting are favorable," says our interlocutor.
Protection measures
If the nests are located in dangerous places or need to be moved to protect the birds from people, Milošević says that citizens can contact the local Institute for Nature Protection.
"The protection measures that we implement, for example, are that if there is a risk of electric shock, because most often storks nest in such places where there are old poles with bad insulators, we, in cooperation with Elektrodistribucija Srbije, set up a platform for storks," Milosevic points out. .
He adds that one of the goals of the census is to obtain data on which nests are threatened.
"Platforms must not be placed during the nesting period, but when the birds are not in the nest," concludes our interlocutor.
Call to citizens
The society invited citizens to participate in the census.
Milošević explains that an application (which can only be installed on Android phones) was created for the purposes of the census. A link was created through which can be installed by the application.
"When you enter the application, it automatically searches for the location, and if someone wants to mark it himself, he can do so by long pressing the screen. The coordinates are sent automatically, and after clicking on the screen, a form appears that must be filled in," says Milošević.
In the form, it should be stated whether the observed nest is active or not, and if so, how many birds there are and whether there are chicks, where the nest is located and which settlement it is in question.
"After each entered data, people need to go to the recorded data in the drop-down menu and send to [email protected]. "
Who can't use this app, a form has been created which can be found on the link on their website, and if someone does not know how to "handle electronics", they can call the office number of the Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia (021/304-49-25) and ask for the project coordinator.
The census of white storks is one of the oldest bird monitoring in Europe and is carried out every ten years, and this is the eighth time it has been organized.
